a front row seat to democracy. ♪ >> coming up live today on c-span, white house press secretary will be briefing reporters today. that is set to start at 12:30 p.m. eastern. we will take you back to the white house for a naturalization ceremony with president biden. of these events are live but you can also watch online -- all of these events are live, but you can also watch online at c-span.org. saturday, on the communicators. >> i'm referring to the ways that information, communication, technologies are being furthered . the ways in which technology is being used via coercion and other means to accomplish political goals, ticket elite for those leaders who are not

democratic leaders. >> author of the riots of digital repression, saturday at 6:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> joining us this terry schilling. he is the president of the american rentable project. we want to talk about the american family. what is your organization and why was it founded? >> thanks so much for having me. i've always been a c-span fan. we were founded in 2009. we were almost like an orphanage for all of these super important issues that politicians and conservatives weren't really caring about. an immigration project. a few years ago, we reassessed what the real threats were to this country. we found that there was a major gap when it came to filling the puppet -- the political gap for family policy. there is a lot of great family

groups out there. there was no one who was going into campaign elections, running campaign ads against the bad guys, running them for the good guys. we revamped. there was a mini revolution and we wanted to fill that little cool gap for families. our board chairman says we are the nra for families. i think that's the right way to look at this. we are organizing families and politics to protect the family. that's us simply as i could put it. there are lots of groups that do this. there's big pharma, big tech, big oil but there is no big family until now. we just launched our big family

membership. we just care about familieshoste nra and that is the headline from fox news. your group launching the effort to create the nra for families. what do you mean by that? guest: so, when a politician, for example is supporting done confiscation efforts or gun-control efforts, the nra alerts members and engages them and organizes them in politics to make the politician pay a price. what happens is that it sends a message to all of the politicians that when you do something to hurt gun owners or take away the second amendment rights of them you will pay a price electorally. you and i have been in politics for a long time and as cynical

as i can be, politicians care about one thing, there reelection, and that is how our system was designed. all we are doing is playing by the rules and we want politicians to take into account their reelection efforts and when they vote for bills that would impact the family. if it will hurt the family we do not want them to vote for it and know that they will pay a price for it. if it will help families we want them to vote for it and they will pay a price if they vote against it. this is starting up very small, but we have 3500 members who have signed up in the first two weeks, and i have not even started promoting this yet. there is a lot that we have to do, but i think it will change family policy and politics very long time. host: let us talk about policy, give us a specific example of a policy that you want to see changed or enforced? guest: the big thing that we have been focused on is stopping

the equality act. across the country, states at the local level all the way up have been passing sexual orientation and gender identity nondiscrimination law. what is happening is that they are having an adverse effect on other groups of american citizens. you take for example our daughters, girls, and women. you pass a gender identity nondiscrimination bill at the local level and what happens is that males who were born male who identify as women are able to not only compete in women's sports against girls, they are also able to enter women's private facilities. this is a drastic change from where america has always been. when we started passing these laws to segregate bathrooms on the basis of sex it was a feminist victory. women were not allowed -- they did not have their own private facilities so they were not going into the workforce.

feminists wanted their own facilities. we want to fight back against the soji laws and change them and keep the federal government from passing those laws because it will have an adverse effect on our women and daughters. host: the website is americanprinciplesproject.org and it is one example of the work that you are doing, here is this. [video clip] >> victory comes with sacrifice, struggle, determination, countless hours of training every day, waking up at 4:00 a.m., developing skills, grinding, it is not easy. nothing was handed to me. everything earned, driven by the desire to win and overcome the agony of defeat, to achieve, compete, and succeed. it is one of the strongest human emotions. i just want a fair shot. i want justice, but joe biden

and his administration would make me compete against biological boys and sports. the american principles project is working to stop it. they want to protect girl sports . stand with me and support their efforts. bien mvp for girl athletes everywhere. go to protect girl sports -- protectgirlsports.com. [end video clip] host: if you would elaborate on this debate that is becoming front and center. guest: what this comes down to is that there is a political movement in this country that seeks to erase all differences between the two sexes. and that has formalized itself into this gender ideology and non-binary movement in the lgbt movement. and, what they are seeking to do is to pass these laws which they thickly eliminate the legal distinctions and protections that we have carved out for

women. it is absolutely a disaster. it flies in the face of self-evident truths that we know to be true which is that women and men are equal, but complement each other because they are different. so you can be different and still be equal, and so these laws are going on all over the country, they are very harmful, and we were trying to figure out how to stop them and there are a lot of really bad things that go along with these bills. i mentioned the private facilities and sports, but when you look at women's prisons, you pass a bill and what happens is males even if they are convicted sex offenders if they claim to be women, they get to be moved to the women's prison facilities. that is not only wrong but dangerous and harmful. some would even consider that people. we need to do a better job of acknowledging reality. there are certain things that we cannot change regardless of how

hard we try. we have to do that because it is about protecting our kids, daughters, women, and making sure that they have equal opportunities and are safe. there are a lot of biological differences at the genetic and biological level between men and women including that men are taller and stronger and have more muscle mass and bone density. they are totally different, and that is ok. you can still be equal and different. but these laws erase legal distinctions that women and men had to work so hard to achieve over the last 250 some years. but that is what we are dealing with here, and that is why we are so motivated to fight against it because they are harmful. host: i want to remind our listeners and viewers that they can join in. 202-748-8000 is the line for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. independent, and we have a line

-- for text -- we have a line for text messages at 202-748-8003. guest: we have tested a lot of this stuff, a lot of the harm that comes with it including the religious freedom aspect and found that the messages that voters responded the most to that would actually change how they vote was the issue of fairness and safety and protecting children. and so that is what we based all of our campaigns against these laws on, and we will you will see us running ads on protecting women's privacy and safety. and also protecting opportunities when it comes to athletics and academics. host: i want to get your reaction to the transportation secretary, pete buttigieg who is openly gay and spoke at a gay pride event talking about transgender issues. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> there is a dangerous political strategy arising in some states as politicians try to gain advantage by taking on transgender kids.

some of the most vulnerable people in this country. there are consequences when politicians and other leaders respond to transgender people search for equality and belonging by denying someone can be transgender at all. telling america that transgender people do not exist amounts to telling very real transgender people that they should not exist. and, if you were a person in a position of responsibility, you need to understand the weight of your words, and that if you go around signaling to people that transgender youth should not exist, transgender youth will hear you and some of them will believe you. so, this is a matter of life and death. [end video clip] host: that from a white house event. your reaction. guest: i think he built a strawman that is a fair -- unfair argument. no one denies that there are people that suffer from gender

dysphoria where they feel uncomfortable in the body they were born in. frankly, i am not motivated by anything besides wanting to give the appropriate and best care to people who i'd enter -- who identify as transgender. if you look at the two sides of this debate, you have pete buttigieg's side, which is causing the harm. they are telling young children that they were born in the wrong body. for little kids who internalize the fact that they were a mistake from the beginning and born in the wrong body and there was something wrong from the beginning is harmful. but he goes further, this agenda from the transgender lobby, what they want to do is to get diesel kids on puberty blockers which cause permits daylight -- sterilization and that is something that kids cannot comprehend. you will be -- you will never be able to have your own children. we cannot consent to that.

children cannot consent to sex and sexuality. by allowing them to opt into treatments like hormone blockers or giving up their ability to ever have their own kids, it is so evil and harmful. that is what i want to stop. so how to put it simply, democrats and the left, you have kids you feel uncomfortable in their bodies. their solution is let us change your body. let us make alterations to your body so that when you look in the mirror you do not feel uncomfortable. my solution is simpler and much more scientifically based and proven which is what i want to change your mind. i want your mind to accept your body as it is, you are perfect in every way, we need to talk you through the confusion and we should not make any permanent alterations to your perfect body in every way. if my child for example, i have five kids. if my child was suffering from

other -- some from other body dysmorphia if they felt uncomfortable, and by the way feeling uncomfortable in your own body is a thing that every teenager goes through so it is a very natural thing. but, if my kid -- my solution for my child that does not feel comfortable in their own body would not be to change their body, but their mind to get them to accept themselves and love themselves not make permanent alterations like they can never take back. i think pete buttigieg is being disingenuous and his movement is going to cause a lot of harm. i tell people this, and five to 10 years when all of these kids who have been rushed into surgeries and they are being rushed into these treatments. when they regret that, they will be coming to people like me who will be their best ally. i will make sure that they get paid to the damages done to their body, the permanent

alterations in sterilization, i will make sure there is justice done. this is a temporary thing that the democrats will appear to be the allies of people with gender dysphoria but they are there worst enemy and reading them down the law -- the wrong road. host: let us bring in viewers and listeners. our guest is terry schilling the president of the american principles project. he has worked for a number of members of congress in the house and senate. his father served as a member of congress. he is joining us from iowa. tim from toledo, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning i want to tell you i think you do an excellent job, i could not do your job. but, i have one question and i am not pro or anti-, i am really indifferent about it. i want to know that there was a time 150 years ago when an

unarmed man shot an unarmed man he might be charged for murder or he is considered a coward. when did that change? when did it become all right for an armed man to shoot an unarmed man in this country? the old gun culture when when -- where men were men i like that better. today i do not know. if an unarmed -- evan armed man shoots -- if an armed man shoots an unarmed man he is a coward, when did that change. host: bring that into the contacts for our segment which is the american families. caller: the nra and all that and the nra for families and i thought that was my big thing right there. i work in construction and i know a couple of people, three of them and i am not going to say names, but they all are big time right-wing supporters and they believe in guns and they will not go anywhere without a gun.

i work in construction and there are certain things -- certain jobs you cannot be armed at. i tell them you cannot have a gun and they cannot bring it and they say i do not go anywhere without a gun. when did we become such a coward race to go everywhere with a gun. and not all of them have their guns registered. host: we will leave it there. your response. guest: i think i need to expand my comparisons. i used the nra and 10 was not the only person who has been confused by that. -- tim was not the only person who has been confused by that. we are like the aarp for families as well. every group in d.c. has a special interest group. seniors have the aarp. teachers have the national education association. everyone has their own group, i am trying to create one separately for the american family to advance family policy and pa reliable ally to our

friends and a formidable throat -- photo art enemies. host: bob. independent line. caller: good morning. the first thing i want to say, i appreciate your 30 years of service to c-span. you susan, and brian do a great job in wringing this to us and i really hate to see you go. i hope you have a wonderful career. host: thank you. caller: i think terry has a perfect example in that his family is the most dysfunctional -- dysfunctional family that has existed in the white house. it is unbelievable that the press lets them get by with saying i -- it is a personal matter and i will not talk about it. he has a three-year-old granddaughter that he will not

acknowledge. joe and jill believe in and assessed, -- incest it does not have to be in blood. hunter took on his dead brother's wife. it is so dysfunctional i cannot imagine. we will be so messed up. it is frightening to me. it is absolutely frightening. again, i thank you for what you have done and i hate to see you go. host: thank you for the call. terry schilling with reference to the president and his family, your response. guest: i tend to stay away from personal problems that our president has. i am more concerned about the actions that president biden has taken that has hurt the american family. on day one he signed an executive order that would allow for boys to compete and book

darshan girl sports and basically threatening every school in the country that if they did not allow that to happen that they would pull federal funding. i am more concerned about that type of thing. i understand that there is a lot of problems with the biden family. i will say that families across the country have these type of problems. hunter biden is an extreme example, but families across the country deal with these problems every day. the only reason that a lot of them solve them is because they have a strong family situation. all of the dysfunctional families actually reinforce the idea that we need strong families because strong families -- i got my girlfriend pregnant in high school, and it was my friendly and -- family and girlfriends family that helped me work through that. if we had -- if we did not have a strong family it would have been a disaster. we are all human beings and we

all make mistakes, and do bad things. it is that strong family structure that helps you work out those problems, and you just have a lot of problems and dysfunction and you have dysfunctional families or, even as we are experiencing, no family formation which leads to lack of health and ability to get resources and to get through these problems. those are the bigger issues i'm concerned about. host: thank you for waiting. good morning. caller: good morning. i am glad that there is a group that is forming to take care of watching what each politician does and reporting out on it. i agree with mr. schilling that children should be protected. i am not saying that we should not treat them with love and

kindness, but i think it is a very confusing issue for children and, i really do not think they are capable of making lifetime decisions prior to being adults. so, this really concerns me that we are allowing children to make these decisions, and it does not seem like they are getting both sides of the information, for example, i think transgenders have a more suicidal i had -- ideology. i believe. i believe this came out from the american site react -- psychiatric association. host: let us get a democratic voice. william is on the phone from north carolina. caller: i want to know if you

just concentrate on social issues that affect the family or do you concentrate on other issues that affect the family like affordable health care, and getting a living wage for people? thank you, i would like to hear you out. host: thank you. guest: that is my favorite question so far. we are not just social issues. we go also into education, as well as economic issues such as health care. we want to make it easier to get married, have babies and protect our kids, that is how i put it. one of my biggest problems in this country is how -- i would say the republican party is at fault here. it is how we treat corporations versus how we treat families. just at a bare minimum, you look

at how corporations are taxed. they are taxed on their net revenue. families are taxed on their gross income. that is not a fair system. if i am a corporation and i provide a company card to my employees i do not pay taxes on that. i get to write that off of the taxes i get to pay. when i am a family and i have my third, fourth, or fifth child and i have to upgrade to the minivan i do not get to write the cost off. i want to make our economic and health care system, every part of this country, i want to make prioritized towards family and focused on helping family. the family is the basic building block of society. once you go the on that, you will have a lot more division. we need to make sure that families are supported economically, and that public policy reflects that. we need affordable health care and paying jobs. on a lot of these issues we are

going head-to-head with corporate america. corporate america has been killing the family on economic issues but on social issues as well. you turn on the tv and all through pride month you have drag queens and all of this stuff like that is really offensive to families that they do not want to be exposed to. but on top of the economics we also focus a lot on education. look at what is going on in schools, you have critical race theory, the 1619 history problem, kids are learning that they are racist, and their parents are racist because of the color of their skin they are learning that america was founded on slavery and not the declaration of independence, it is terrible. we are focused on every issue and every area that affects the family economically, socially, or through education. host: first of all this headline

from ", the washington post" you mention children's television. a family with two dads making its debut on sesame street during pride week. your reaction to that. guest: sorry. look, first of all when it comes to kids, i think they should be free from all the sexual ideas. i get what they are trying to do but, we do not live in a world that is hostile or a country that is hostile to gay americans it is alive. you know that because we went through pride month where every patient and organization was out with a rainbow flag waving it proudly and supporting the gay community. there is not a need to go after children when it comes to these types of sexual ideas. on top of that, i have an inherent issue with the whole kids being raised in gay households and it is not from i think they are abusive or that they are evil.

it is not that. i think that kids need the complementarity of a mother and a father and this gets back to the heart of the issue, there is a group of people in this country that do not think there is any difference between men and women. they think they are exactly the same and the only reason there is any difference is because we treat them different socially which is not the case. mothers nurture their children and teach them how to care and to be compassionate. children should be exposed to that. fathers can their kids hard work and sacrifice. they teach their kids how to play, and i am not saying that mothers cannot teach it, it isn't a more natural fit for both of the sexes. in these same-sex households there is no diversity. i think these kids should be exposed to diverse merited -- marriages or you have a mother and father who are giving the kids what they need and the experience of dealing with a mother and a woman and a father and a man.

you can say i'm old school and too traditional and i believe the are self-evident truths that men and women are different and offer different things to the world including their families and children. a.p.p. what we are doing is not religious base. we are factual based and focused on the family, that is all we care about. you're not going to hear me quoting the bible or anything, but i think that kids need a mom and a dad and that they will do best in that circumstance. host: a.p.p. is the american principles project, our guest is terry schilling joining us from iowa. you brought up the issue of critical race theory and i want to come back to that in a moment. i want to come back to karen, who has been patient on the independent line. caller: i just feel like other countries seem to take care of their families better and that is why the u.s. is number six and canada is number one. they put everything into

education. i would like to see everything public rather than the voucher system if you wants to go to a religious school or -- want to go to a religious school or whatnot. they all have something in common which is universal health care and i think that will help us and at least let people have a choice. if you want to be in a group insurance where you are universal health care or you are private. i think just making us to profit off of human beings all the time is where america is going wrong. host: thank you for the call. i want to go back to your earlier point and have a quick response what he had to say. guest: one thing is that in terms of economics and the system, especially pertaining to schools. number one we spent a lot of money per kid in our school system. fairfax county, virginia spends

$17,000 a year for a pupil in the school system and our kids are not doing that great. my kids should know latin for that. but now they barely know english and math. i do not really think the whole thing is just to monopolize everything in the public sector. i think parents should be empowered over the public taxpayer-funded and such. host: this headline from national public radio, defending the study of critical race theory in the military. the comments of the chair of the joint steve -- chief of staff at a hearing that we covered which is available in the free c-span video library and -- c-span.org. here is what the general had to say. [video clip] >> on the issue of critical race theory a lot of us have to get smarter on what the theory is. but, i think it is important, actually for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be

widely read. the united states military academy is a university and it is important that we train and understand -- and i want to understand white rage and i am white. i want to understand it. what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the constitution of the united states of america. what caused that? i want to maintain an open mind and i want to analyze it. it is important to understand it because our soldiers come from the american people so it is important that the leaders now and in the future understand it. i have read mao zedong, karl marx, lenin, that does not make me a communist. what is wrong with understanding ? having situational understanding about the country that we are here to defend? i find it offensive that we are accusing the military and general officers and

commissioned and noncommissioned officers of being "woke" because we are studying theories. that was studied in -- started in harvard years ago that established that anti-bellum laws led to a power differential with african americans were three quarters of a human being that -- when the country was formed. we brought it up to the civil rights act and it took 100 years to change that. i do wants to know and i respect your service you and i are both green berets it matters to the military and the discipline and cohesion. [end video clip] host: the issue of critical race theory taught at west point and the naval academy and among the ranks, and you brought up the issue earlier. your thoughts and concerns. guest: concern number one is that the military has made a series of moves and decisions recently that start to suggest that they have become woke and

adopted a lot of left-wing ideology. his comments about wanting to understand "white rage" and how a group of people can storm the capital and try to take over and overturn democracy. let us rewind because he said a lot of things and built a lot of strawmen. said a lot of things. i reject the entire notion that was an insurrection. there were no guns. we were not the ones with the guns. there were no bombs. it was a bunch of hooligans and ne'er-do-wells. they stayed in the white line at the capital. they weren't trying to destroy it. they were outraged. it is not white rage that drove what happened on january 6. it is a feeling that the system is rigged against the american people. if you really want to understand how people can go and stormy capitol building -- storm a capitol building, go to the founding of the country when people stormed the british, took

over tea ships and had 18 party in boston -- had a tea party in boston pit our foundries -- founders were righteous, and they were freaking out taxes on stamps, taxes on tea, taxation without representation. they were upset about a lot of different things and i think those types of things motivate people to take action. let's look at black rage, then? what has caused thousands and millions of people to go burn down cities, burned down washington, d.c., in the summer just before that? this is not about race. we need to stop treating every issue as if it is a racial issue. it is not. i grew up in the midwest. it is pretty white out here, but my heroes will all black -- were all black pair my hero was michael jordan growing up -- the greatest basketball player of all time. i would have done anything to meet with impaired i worked hard to save up money to go to his

basketball camp. we are not a racist country. and that was 30 years ago pit we are not a racist country. you stop trying to force this on our kids. i will say that the military doing this, studying critical race theory and pushing it on a grown adult is completely different than pushing critical race theory on young children who don't have the ability to comprehend and debate this fully. the critical race theory in school is a totally separate issue from critical race theory in our military. there are problems with that being in our military, by the way, but that is my initial reaction pit i don't think it was fair. host: stephanie in brooklyn, new york. thank you for waiting period -- waiting. caller: good morning pit i am calling to comment about transgender -- good morning. i am calling to comment about transgender in schools. i think anyone has a choice to be what they want to be.

i don't get has to do with the family, it has to do with a individual as a child growing up and you keep using this family dynamics, family, yes, is very important, but it is the parents, the mother, the father, it could be both, it can be men and man, woman or woman -- it is the teaching that you teach that child. i also want to get into the race theory. they do not teach critical race theory in schools -- public schools, private schools, or any schools. they don't teach that. they barely teach black history in schools. so, i don't know why the republicans keep coming up with this concept of critical race theory when they do not teach it in schools. we have to -- as a black american woman i have to teach my kids about my history, which

is not taught in schools, so you all keep going on about this, and it is not happening, so stop saying that. host: stephanie, thank you for the call. terry schilling we are short on time. your quick response. guest: on the transgender issue and individuals versus famished -- number one, when it comes to kids, parents are in charge until they reach the age of 18 or whatever the age is in their state, so parents should be firmly in charge of their kid's well-being and their education. secondly, i don't know where to begin. beasley, critical race theory is being taught, which is why it is being opposed by these parents. school boards are voting on it, and that is what is driving these parents across the country to show up. i wish the republican party was trying to tackle these issues, but it is a slog. i am trying to convince a lot of republicans to fight this and they don't want to because i don't want to get involved in

controversial issues, as important as they are. third, black history -- i don't know where you grew up, maybe it is broken, maybe you have really terrible schools, but where i grew up, i knew all about slavery, the founding, civil rights, how important the fight was, how evil it was pit i learned about emmett till, and how horrific --it was. i learned about emmett till and how horrific that was pit i don't know where you went to school, where your kids went to school, but you should go to a school board meeting and start taking that over we would love to have you join. we would train you to get involved in school board races and hold them accountable. host: our last call, alan. good morning. you are on with terry schilling. caller: i wanted to bring up the student loan issue. this country is $1.8 trillion in debt, mostly to the federal government, and i can tell you firsthand this is ruining families, not only are families

not able to be formed, but the largest growing of -- segment of these loans are made to parents. these loans are unconstitutional. don't have bankruptcy protections, statutes of limitation, and the federal government is profiting on defaulted loans. i have not heard the american family guy say anything about this very important family ruining debt instrument. i think they should be canceled. the government can cancel these without needing one penalty from the treasury. what does he say about that? guest: i totally agree. i'm sorry, it is a limited timeframe issue, they need to be brought up. we need to address that. i don't know how i feel about canceling everything. i think we need to stop pushing college on kids.

we are pushing kids into college when they should be pushed into trade and they are not graduating college so you have these young kids with $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 worth of student loan debt, and they are not graduating, and now they are stuck and have to work a dead-end job. we need to tie the student loans to the universities. universities have been profiting. there has been so much money in the university system. they need to be held accountable and have skin in the game, to pit i want to hold everyone accountable, but i also like we should stop pushing college on kids since it is not that great of an investment. you can make more money going into plumbing, electrical work, trade unions.

i love trade unions. they are great. they will be rebuilding this country and saving our kids and families a lot of debt. host: terry schilling is president of an organization called the american principles project, giving us >> coming up live on c-span the white house press secretary 10 -- jen psaki will be reaping reporters at 12:30 eastern. coming up 2:30 we will take you back for a nationally -- naturalization ceremony. they are life on c-span you can watch online at c-span.org or listen and with the three radio app. -- free radio app. >> c-span is your unfiltered view for government funded by these kill ash television companies including charter communication. >> broadband is a force for empowerment which is why charter

has invested billions in building up -- infrastructure, upgrading technology and empowering opportunity in communities big and small. charter is connecting us. >> charter communication support c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> next, attorney general merrick garland and assistant attorney hold a news conference on voting rights, this is about 25 minutes. inutes. mr. garland: good morning. i'm pleased to be joined by lisa monaco,